Tell your bowel cancer story

Christmas 2017 my husband had what we thought was a stomach bug,for the next 18 months he was backwards and forwards to the Dr's who treated him for IBS as he had all the symptoms of the condition,swollen stomach,intermittent griping pain,rushing to the toilet feeling like he had to go to find it was wind.His general health was good.He availed of the National bowel screening programme which came back clear.He tried changing his diet and avoided foods that aggravated his IBS.We finally got to the point where the pain was so severe that he was sent by our GP to A&E he spent nearly 8 hours being checked over another round of blood tests and told all was ok and it probably was IBS nothing indicated any thing serious was going on,just as a precation they refered him for a Colonoscopy still telling him they were confident it was IBS.On the 4th December he had his procedure and discovered he had a tumour,since then it has been a whirlwind of appointments and more information than we were prepared for.He had surgery in January of this year and all went well,we have met with the Oncologist and he is starting Chemo in April,T4 N2 stage3C was the last news we had.I just wanted to post this to say not all cancer is weight loss and bleeding from the rectum or changed bowel habits,if you have any symptoms go to the Dr's my hubby has been lucky as his turned out to be very aggressive,hopefully the next 6 months won't be too tough for him and me but as i say we are lucky.

I had a tumour in the small intestine/ duodenum which was diagnosed in October 2018. I then went through the whirlwind of scans and appointments leading to a Whipples procedure in November 2018. That was followed by 4 weeks in hospital and then preventative chemotherapy which started in January this year. Just to make things more interesting I had some adverse reactions to the chemotherapy on sessions 4 and 5 but got through them and finished session 6 3 weeks ago. I met some incredible people on the way and some absolute angels of nurses. What kept me going was talking about my cancer and other people's cancers. The more you talk about it the more it becomes part of every day life and not that big scary word. Focus on the positives and laugh as much as possible. Mine was a T4 tumour but I am on the right road now and every thing is looking good. There is an incredible amount of support out there and don't be afraid to use it if you need to. Peter

Hi Peter I am glad to here everything is going well and getting back on the right road.as I am going about chemotherapy myself this week as I had a tumour removed nearly 4weeks ago I am anxious to have a idea how much chemo r type I may be going for

I was diagnosed with bowel cancer on October 2018 aged 37. I had an colostomy put in November 2018 followed by 6 weeks of Chemo radiation. Then the tumor removed March 2019 and my colostomy was changed to an ileostomy.
This was then followed by a further 6mths Chemotherapy. I had my stoma reversal December 2019 and things are worse than ever. Be advised that the Stoma reversal is not the be all and end all. Most days I wish I had never bothered with the reversal. At least I had control with the stoma and bag. Besides eating Imodium like smarties any advise? Im actually enjoying the lockdown so I dont have to worry about being invited places or doing activities and I am WFH. I handled my Surgeries and Chemo with minimum fuss. I am single and did most it alone (by choice) and was quite proud of myself I just ploughed on with my eyes firmly on the finish line. Now that I am here (and thankfully the news is good) my quality of life is a serious disappointment for a woman my age!